Update: I was unfortunately not aware of Shamus Young's severe criticism of Fallout 3 available here to link in the original piece and I regret that. It dovetails rather nicely with what I've written and it's much better executed than my piece. I strongly recommend anyone...

Grumman F6F Hellcat Screenshots

A new UK based producer of addons for Microsoft’s Flight Simulator X has launched the first of a range of WWII aircraft to flight simmers through their website. Real Flight’s debut product is a replica of the Grumman F6F Hellcat, the acclaimed carrier based fighter that joined the war in February 1943. Development of the FSX Hellcat has been ongoing by Project Manager Dean Greasley who launched Real Flight in June 2008, and his small team to complete.

Attention to detail has been the key to already gaining positive feedback from forums across the flight sim community. Built only for FSX including SP1, SP2 and Acceleration (no planned version for FS9), the Hellcat has a highly detailed virtual cockpit complete with 3d gauges and authentic textures, as well as switches to arm and use both bombs and rockets, as well as the working drop tank.

Externally the model maker has satisfied the rivet counters with all animations present and correct, including folding wings and the crucial tail hook for those carrier landings. The authentic sound package also adds to the immersion achieved as you open up the throttle and watch how the self shadowing, bump mapping and spectacular highlights bring any of the 12 carefully selected paint schemes to life.

“We have started as we mean to go on,” said Dean Greasley. “The benchmark has been set high by our first product to show the standard we are setting for ourselves and for our competitors. An addon package spurred on by the immediate sales success is already underway for the Hellcat.”

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